Objectives

Understand how group dynamics and inter-individual physiological signaling influence individual health and developmental outcomes (including mechanisms for communication/coordination of information such as the Cross Embryo Morphogenetic Assistance effect pioneered in Phase I), and tools or methodologies that mimic or rely on such understandings to improve individuals’ health and developmental outcomes

Hypotheses

Now that science has confirmed that collectivist effects exist at the embryo level (previously only recognized at the molecular, cell, and animal level), we will pursue the following in Phase II.

Better understand the breadth/universality of the Cross Embryo Morphogenetic Assistance (CEMA) effect:

• Adult organisms, not only embryos, can benefit each other’s healing
• The CEMA effect will work across genetic backgrounds
• The CEMA effect will work to repair genetic damage, not only pharmacologically-induced damage
• CEMA will reduce the incidence of mutations due to mutagen exposure

Computationally model, in a true field-based fashion, the multi-scale group assistance effects:

• A true field model will be able to explain CEMA data
• The model will enable inference of potential interventions toward desired outcomes (increase of CEMA effect)

Understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the CEMA effects (field and particle) at a field/spatial level:

• The CEMA effect includes spatial dynamics (geometric information)
• ATP and/or calcium are carrier particles of this field

Test exotic mechanisms beyond chemical signals of calcium waves and ATP:

• The CEMA effect is partially mediated by mechanical vibrations in the water
• The CEMA effect is partially mediated by longitudinal waves in the water

Expected Outcomes (In Process)

• Further understand the breadth of informative sources which drive morphology
• Further confirm that an aspect of epigenetics includes that of environmental stimulus, more specifically the external social environment, which is not recognized by science today
• Moreover, understand external positive epigenetic influence in morphogenesis being a collective phenomenon (vs. today’s view of all external factors as deleterious in the form of competition or harmful, parasitic exploitation)

Early Outcomes

• Successfully developed in 2D the first specific field-based computational model beyond the single-cell scale that rigorously connects to biological outcomes, morphogenesis, and specific molecular outcomes which is able to explain the CEMA multi-scale group assistance effects
  • Demonstrated that the CEMA effect can be successfully modeled through machine learning, simulating a 2D sheet of cells and their electric signals and observing the tissue wide field created and the resultant tissue morphology, validating this against the observed bench-scale outcomes
  • Cellular endogenous electric fields organize discrete networks of cells as a top down controller which facilitates the observed long-distance communication which simple chemical molecular interactions were unable to explain
  • Confirms the century old notion that an invisible biological field can operate at large scale to coordinate tissue organization and morphology, in this case a literal “force field”
  • Addresses the fundamental challenge in medicine of understanding how thousands of individual cells can coordinate their behavior to produce a specific, robust anatomical outcome- by shifting view from bioelectricity as a purely discrete network to rather understanding the role of integrated biophysical fields which penetrate tissue instantaneously
  • Opens the potential for utilizing an electrostatic field to steer multicellular constructs toward desired morphologies without the need for cellular-level interventions

Publication in Cell Reports Physical Science:

Field Mediated bioelectric basis of morphogenetic prepatterning